The Show Must Go On
by Simply Rexene
Summary: Roxas, along with Xion, Ventus and Vanitas, remain locked inside Sora's heart. Axel has returned to Lea, becoming trapped in the heart of his Somebody and therefore unable to continue his search for Roxas. But here's the thing... Axel isn't done yet.


Summary: Set 5 years into the future from KH2 and disregarding any events that may happen in KH3, 20 year olds Sora Ryan and Kairi Kingston are finally free of their adventure and able to settle down together with plans of marriage and starting a family. They find their permanent home back in Destiny City, where they could remain close to their friends. Organization XIII scattered, the remaining members taking residence throughout the different worlds. Heartless and Nobodies are no longer a problem, spare the occasional leftover rogue, though they're easy enough to take care of.

Roxas, along with Xion, Ventus and Vanitas, remain locked inside Sora's heart. Axel has returned to Lea, becoming trapped in the heart of his Somebody and therefore unable to continue his search for Roxas.

But here's the thing…

Axel isn't done yet.

…

 **I**

...

"I'm glad we decided to meet up for lunch," Sora grinned across the table at Lea, "It's been way too long since we've hung out."

Lea felt his upper lip twitch a little, "Yeah, it's definitely been awhile…"

"Are you okay? You've hardly touched your food," the brunette tilted his head to the side curiously, studying Lea's tense body language.

"I'm fine. How's Kairi?"

Sora began to ramble happily, "She's doing wonderful! I wasn't going to tell anybody just yet, but since we don't see you often I guess I can let you in… I plan on proposing next week on her birthday!"

This time his hand twitched with the urge to become a fist. "Oh yeah? How wonderful," he grit through clenched teeth.

"I even bought the ring! I've been carrying it around for days now because I know that if I leave it at home, she'll find it. She's rather sneaky, you know, and she can talk me into anything. Do you want to see it?" his deep blue eyes sparkled at Lea as he dug through his pocket to find the small pink ring box.

Lea took the box, flipping the top open to reveal a huge diamond set with other smaller diamonds to look like a flower. The band was rosegold, which made sense with Kairi's love of the color pink. All in all, it was the perfect ring to give her. And it disgusted him. "She'll love it," he mumbled, shoving the box back at Sora and picking at his fries.

"Right? I had it custom made for her. But if she doesn't like it, I'll buy her another one… I can't help but spoil her. I just want her to be as happy as possible, you know?"

Lea suddenly wished that he hadn't opened the can of worms that he had in mentioning Kairi. "What about Riku?" he attempted to change the subject, cutting Sora off in the middle of a sentence.

"Riku? Oh, he's good. He just turned 21 last month and I think he's thoroughly enjoying being able to drink. I kind of worry about him a little, but I think once he gets it out of his system he'll cool down with it. I can't believe Kairi is about to be 21 also… I hate being the youngest sometimes!"

"Jesus, do you ever _shut up_?" Lea muttered under his breath, causing Sora to stop and look at him.

"What was that?"

Lea cracked a grin, "Nothing, nothing at all."

"So what have you been up to, Lea?"

He shrugged, "Not too much, honestly. I've been thinking about going back to school, but I feel like I'm too old for it now."

"You're only 28! That's not that old!"

"Thank you for announcing it to the world…" Lea shrunk down in his chair as some of the other patrons in the restaurant turned to look at him. "I'm almost 30… I feel like being in school in your 30s is completely lame."

Sora shook his head, "No it's not! You lost so many years to Axel that it's like you're not even that old anyways!"

"Right…" Lea hung his head, "But I still have some of his memories floating around in my head."

"Well they aren't your memories. They're his."

He felt his body tense again, "Whatever…"

"Are you sure you're okay, Lea? You seem kind of down."

"I'm fine," he repeated, "But hey, it's getting kind of late. I should probably get going."

Sora furrowed his brows in confusion, "It's not even one yet…"

"It's a long way home…" he mumbled, standing up and throwing some munny on the table.

"How long could a stroll through a Corridor of Darkness be?!"

Lea was already halfway out the door, "I'll come visit again sometime, okay?"

Sora sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what had sent Lea running. He definitely seemed different than normal. Axel, and in turn Lea, had always been kind of smug and sarcastic, but never tense and irritated like that.

...

The restaurant they'd met up at wasn't too far from the apartment Sora and Kairi shared, so he found himself walking home through the streets of Destiny City. Now, the city had never had a problem with crime (now that it was rid of Heartless), so it wasn't uncommon at all to cut through alleyways to avoid walking entire blocks only to double back anyways down the next street.

Sora thought nothing of it when he turned down the alleyway that led to his apartment complex. He didn't even hear the Corridor of Darkness open behind him, and he wasn't paying enough attention to notice the black cloaked figure walk up behind him.

As the blunt object made contact with the back of his head, Sora's vision exploded with black and red and he crumpled to the ground with a whimper, "What the hell…?" he slowly turned himself over to try and get a glimpse of his attacker. "...Lea?"

Pulling his black hood down, the redhead knelt down beside Sora with a sneer on his lips, "The name's Axel, _got it memorized_?"

"Axel… but…" Sora wasn't able to finish his thought as Axel hit him one more time, effectively knocking him out.

...

"Nn… fuck… ow…" Sora muttered as he peeled his eyes open. He had a splitting headache and he had no idea where he was or what had happened.

"About damned time," Axel stepped into his line of view, wearing his black Organization outfit.

Sora tried to stand up, only to find himself bound to a chair with tight ropes. "What the hell is going on, Lea?"

"I told you, my name is Axel. Lea's heart was so God damned weak… It was almost too easy to break him and take over," he grinned sickly, "Now you're going to help me with something very, _very_ important."

The brunette struggled against the bondage, "I don't understand… You took back control of Lea?"

"Now see, it's really not that difficult of a concept… I was trapped inside his heart and his heart was weak. I, however, was strong."

"But… why are you doing this? You helped me… You sacrificed yourself for me…"

Axel growled, "I sacrificed myself for Roxas! Everything I've done… it's all been for him!"

"But Roxas isn't here anymore, Axel… You know that," Sora grit his teeth as a wave of pain rushed through his head.

"Ohh, but on the contrary… Roxas has been here all along. You have him trapped inside your heart, and now you're going to let him free so that we can be together again. Got it?"

Sora shook his head, "I can't do that, Axel… I don't know how."

"Bullshit!" Axel exclaimed, startling him. "Now see, your heart is much stronger than Lea's was… But we'll fix that."

"What're you talking about…?" Sora's eyes followed him in terror as Axel stood up and moved across the room. "Axel, you need to stop this and let me go. People will come looking for me."

 _Let the boy go, Axel. This isn't necessary._

"Shut the fuck up!" Axel snapped, flinging around madly to glare at Sora.

 _I know you miss Roxas, but you need to let him go._

"Stop it! Fuck!" he grabbed his head, groaning in pain as he suddenly felt a headache coming on.

Sora looked ready to burst into tears, "I'm not saying anything!"

"Fuck it… stay here," he motioned to Sora as he stumbled up the stairs of his basement, flipping the lights off and slamming the door behind him.

"Wait, don't-!" Sora tried to call after him, but he was left alone in the dark with absolutely no hope of breaking out of the ropes.

Axel trudged his way to the bathroom, flinging open the medicine cabinet and grabbing some Excedrin. He popped a couple of them, hoping that it would dull his headache. When he closed the cabinet he was faced with his own reflection, a man he hardly recognized.

His fingers ghosted over his cheeks, where his famous inverted triangles were missing. Even his eyes looked less green and more teal, which made him a little sad. His eyes were one of the things Roxas always loved about him.

 _Please, Axel, give me my body back… You had your time, and I need mine._

"Shut _up_!" Axel yelled, in his anger punching the mirror of the medicine cabinet and shattering it into the sink. "Get out of my head!"

 _I won't let you hurt Sora, Axel. You might have been able to fool him in the restaurant, but somebody is going to figure out that you aren't me._

Axel tried as hard as he could to ignore the voice inside his head, focusing instead on his bleeding knuckles. He pulled a couple shards of glass out of them and haphazardly wrapped them in gauze.

"Axel, let me out!" Sora's cries for help started to echo through the house. It might be time to invest in some soundproofing for the basement.

He would bring Roxas back. He had to. One way or another, he would break Sora down until his heart was weak enough to allow Roxas to escape.

...

 **Author's Note:** Okay, so obviously Axel has gone quite a bit insane here… And I'm warning you now, the next few chapters are going to get worse and worse for poor Sora here.

If you didn't quite catch on, Lea is the voice in Axel's head. And yes, Axel had taken over Lea the entire time he was with Sora at lunch as well.

This is quite different from my other stories, and it probably won't be quite as long, but it will definitely be dramatic!

Don't read this if you don't want to see Sora get hurt… seriously.

Anyways, if you like it and want to read more let me know by leaving me a review! I love you guys!

 _Simply Rexene_


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